Young Spaniards demand more European Union at the Conference on the Future of Europe

From 17-19 September, the event 'Young people's proposals for the Conference on the Future of Europe', organised by the Spanish Federal Council of the European Movement, was held at CEULAJ in Mollina (Malaga). The importance of the event lies in the fact that, for the first time, young people from more than 10 associations of the Spanish youth civil society, representing most of the Autonomous Communities, met to discuss and think together about the future of the European Union and to reach, by consensus, proposals to present and defend with a common voice at the Conference on the Future of Europe.

During the event, the young people were critical of the functioning and composition of the Conference, especially coinciding with the start of the Citizens' Panels in Strasbourg. Specifically, the event was held at the same time as the first CoFoE Citizens' Panel focusing on its youth. These criticisms stem from the view that there are "a number of deficits that mean that young people are under-represented at the Conference". However, "young people are playing a fundamental role, as Ursula von der Leyen recalled in her State of the European Union speech on 15 September, during the fight against the pandemic" and, for this reason, the New Generations Fund is called the New Generations Fund. 

They highlight the fact that "young people are not represented by the European and Spanish institutions" and will only participate in the CoFoE as one third of the randomly selected Citizens' Panels. "This situation has not been reversed by appointing representatives of young civil society to the Plenary". In addition, the Conference on the Future of Europe only considers young people to be under 25 years of age, leaving out the "strong representation" of young people that was expected to be achieved, as only 12% of young people have been included despite the fact that, demographically, they represent 25% of the European population under 30 years of age.

Subsequently, the young people debated, in seven working groups, on various issues beyond the topics generally linked to them such as education, sport and the Green Pact; also including the ability to reflect on their future in the field of the Social Pillar, data protection, the regulation of public transport at European level to achieve the objective of decarbonisation and the reduction of emissions...

Among the more than 50 proposals reached, it is worth highlighting that there is a common agreement to move forward in the process of European integration by providing the Union with better policies, greater powers and the reform of the institutions and the decision-making process. If this is considered necessary, they remain open to reforming the treaties, since "we must be aware that the EU does not have sufficient capacity to face the new challenges we are facing, which can only be resolved jointly". By way of example, it has been proposed to extend competences in the areas of health, migration and asylum, to overcome unanimity in foreign policy, and to create common European instruments or standards for the protection of the rule of law in all the Member States. 

Finally, the meeting ended with a clear commitment to bring young people together again in an enlarged meeting that would also include the participation of associations and organised civil society from other Member States, thereby achieving the initial objective of the Conference, which is none other than to generate debate among Europeans, reinforcing participatory democracy, in which organised civil society is a central element. 

They recalled that the Conference, by its initial composition, is an exercise that combines representative democracy, through the representatives of the institutions, and participatory democracy, through the participation of citizens and organised civil society, with special emphasis on young people, as has happened in this event, debating and reaching proposals together. "We young people are the present and the future of the European Union and the Conference must listen to us in order to build together the cathedral that began with the Hague Congress 73 years ago".

In addition to the Youth of the European Movement the organisations that took part are: Asociación de Estados Generadores de Estudiantes de Europa Las Palmas (AEGEE); Consejo de la Juventud de España, Equipo Europa, Erasmus Student Network España (ESN España), Jóvenes Europeistas y Federalistas de España (JEF España), Juventud Europea de Canarias (JUVEUCAN), Talento para el Futuro, and representatives of the youth sections of the European Movement Councils.